Prep football: Sturgis, Burr Oak fall in first round

Friday

Nov 1, 2013 at 11:11 PM

It was just too much Jack Turak.

By Tom MielcarekJournal Correspondent

It was just too much Jack Turak.The senior ran for 391 yards on 43 carries and two touchdowns leading St. Joseph to a 16-0 win in a Division 3 pre-district game at Friday at Dickinson Stadium in St. Joseph.“He had a ton of yardage and a couple of long runs,” Trojan coach Jimmy Lamb said, who felt his team did a decent job on the senior, who broke a lot of long runs during the season. “It was not like anything saw on film.The Trojans were unable to stop Turak with any consistency and the Bears chewed up huge chunks of yardage on the ground and minutes off the clock. The defense bent, but didn’t break most of the night.“Defensively we were stout,” Lamb said. “To give up only 16 points, that’s a tremendous effort on our part.”Offense was the problem for the Trojans.“We didn’t get anything going offensively, “Lamb said. “It was not a good showing. We hold a team to 16 points and we didn’t do anything (offensively), that’s on us.”St. Joseph moved right down the field behind the running of Jack Turak on their first possession, after stopping Sturgis on its’ initial possession.It appeared that the Bears had scored on an 11-yard run by quarterback A.J. Montoya, who kept the ball after faking to Turak. But a penalty nullified the play and the Bears would ended up settling for a 35-yard field goal by Cullen Hoffman two plays later.Montoya was lost after being sacked late in the first quarter, but with the Bears relying on Turak, it did not matter.“He (Turak) was their primary guy after their quarterback got hurt,” Lamb said. “Their gameplan changed after that.”Field position hurt the Trojans in the first half with the average starting position inside their own 20-yard line. The best starting position was the 32-yard line and they were able to move down to the Bear 36-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.“We started a lot of our drives inside the twenty,” Lamb said. Turak would finally get the Bears into the end zone with under a minute left before halftime.. After pinning the Trojans back by their goal line, they would take over at their own 45-yard. On the first play, Turak rumbled for a 43-yard run to set up his team in the red zone.Two plays later, he scored, but a mishandle of the hold led to a missed point after and a St. Joseph 9-0 lead at halftime.In the second half, it did got a little better in the starting field position department, but the Trojans were unable to capitalize.With just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Jack Scheske picked off a pass from Hoffman, the backup quarterback, to setup Sturgis on the positive side of the 50-yard line for the first time in the game.But it would be short-lived as Turak, from his linebacker position, intercepted Chance Stewart to get the ball right back for his team.“We had opportunities, but we couldn’t take advantage,” Lamb said. “It’s kind of disappointing. I thought with our offense, we had a shot going in, but it didn’t turn out that way.”The Bears’ lead was still only 9-0 after three quarters, but they were driving for what would turnout to be their second touchdown. Going with a healthy dose of Turak, St. Joseph was able to put together a 79-yard drive capped by a 11-yard scoring run by Turak and a 16-0 lead with 9:10 left in the game.With just under six minutes left the Trojan special teams gave the offense another chance. Luke Summey got a punt block and it was recovered by Kalvyn Bowdish at the Bear 25-yard line. One first down set up a first-and-goal, but the drive stalled and Sturgis turned the ball over on downs at the 5-yard line.The Bears would run out the clock and claim the win. St. Joseph will now host Stevensville-Lakeshore, which defeated Coldwater, 28-21, Friday night, for the district title.St. Joseph finished with 421 yards of total offense, while the Trojans were only able to muster 119 yards.J.D. Bowdish led the rushing attack with 31 yards on seven carries, while Matt Phillips had four handles for 19 yards.Stewart and his receivers struggled in the misty/rainy conditions and against the Bears pass-rushing attack finishing 4-for-25 for 59 yards. Kalvyn Bowdish had two receptions for 15 yards, while Scheske had a 27-yard catch and Jack Caywood had a 17-yard catch.“Every time they had the ball it was just a little mist,” Lamb said. “When we had it, it seemed like the sky opened up and it would start to rain harder.”Phillips led the defense with 13 tackles, Caywood tallied seven, Tristen Stewart totaled six, Scheske notched four with a sack and Kalvyn Bowdish, Adam Yunker and Jacob Haas each added three tackles.

Lawrence 58, Burr Oak 8Lawrence scored 32 first-quarter points and ran away to a 58-8 win over visiting Burr Oak in first-round 8-man football action Friday night.“Our athletes didn’t matchup well against their athletes,” Bobcat coach Ryan Stephens said. “Our linebackers were a little too aggressive, they got sucked inside a lot, and they (the Tigers) got to the outside.”Lawrence pushed the margin to 52-8 at halftime.Stephens felt the game turned real early after a big Bobcat play was nullified by a penalty.“We had an early good run brought back by a penalty, I think that made a big difference,” he said. “We go in and score soon after that and we may have gotten momentum. I think that’s important in football, along with other sports.”Burr Oak was also missing its’ starting backfield of Chantz Owens and Alejandro Munoz due to injury. Stephens felt that hurt the Bobcats’ offense.Despite the loss, he was pleased with his team’s season.“They accomplished a lot this year, including making the playoffs for the first time,” Stephens said. “The seniors and the rest of the team can be proud of that.”Logan Mount led the ground game with three rushes for 105 yards, Arturo Hernandez-Gonzalez had two carries for 72 yards and a score, Brent Everitt added 11 touches for 43 yards and James Saylor finished with 15 runs for 24 yards.Saylor was 5-for-12 through the air for 29 yards. Alex Campbell had a 15-yard reception and Everitt had two catches for 10 yards.Defensively, Hernandez-Gonzalez led with 11 tackles and a forced fumble, Everitt tallied nine tackles and Mount added six.The Tigers advance to play Battle Creek St. Philip, which defeated Waldron, 62-6, Friday night. The Fighting Tigers will host the second-round contest.